ABSTRACT
We report on a woman with borderline personality disorder and a history of childhood trauma that showed significant clinical response with low dosage of topiramate. We propose that topiramate changed some of the main features of this disorder, such as catastrophic reaction to real or imaginary abandonment or rejection, improving adaptive functioning. We hypothesize that topiramate might facilitate memory extinction, therefore decreasing emotional and behavioural reactivity.
Subject(s)
Borderline Personality Disorder/drug therapy , Child Abuse , Fructose/analogs & derivatives , Neuroprotective Agents/therapeutic use , Borderline Personality Disorder/etiology , Child , Female , Fructose/therapeutic use , Humans , Middle Aged , TopiramateABSTRACT
Smoking behavior is influenced by genetic factors. Polymorphisms affecting the dopaminergic system have been linked to smoking habits. The aim of this study was to investigate if the T102C polymorphism of the 5-HT(2A) receptor gene is related to tobacco use, since this receptor modulates the mesolimbic dopamine system and the C allele is associated with reduced receptor gene expression. A sample of 625 subjects were genotyped and classified according to their smoking behavior (never, former, or current smokers). We found differences in the distribution of the genotypes when the current smokers were compared with the never + former smokers, suggesting that T102C polymorphism is associated with maintenance, but not with initiation of the smoking habit. The CC genotype was more frequent in the current smokers than in the never + former smokers (chi(2) = 6.825, P = 0.03). The odds ratio of being a current smoker with a CC genotype was 1.63, 95% CI 1.06-2.51.
Subject(s)
Polymorphism, Genetic , Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A/genetics , Tobacco Use Disorder/genetics , Adult , Aged , Female , Gene Frequency , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Genotype , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Molecular Epidemiology , Odds Ratio , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Tobacco Use Disorder/epidemiologyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To find out in child abusing mothers whether aggressiveness in general, but which is directed towards their children in particular, could be reduced by giving lithium. METHOD: An open trial of lithium in eight child-abusing mothers. Assessment of aggression using Yudofsky's Overt Aggression Scale. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant reduction (P < 0.05) in aggressiveness to the children and to inanimate objects. CONCLUSION: Lithium could be an effective adjunct in the social and psychological treatment of parents who abuse their children. An adequately powered controlled study testing lithium against placebo over a longer period of treatment and observation would be useful.
Subject(s)
Aggression/drug effects , Antimanic Agents/pharmacology , Child Abuse/prevention & control , Lithium Chloride/pharmacology , Adult , Antimanic Agents/therapeutic use , Child , Female , Humans , Lithium Chloride/therapeutic use , Middle Aged , Mother-Child Relations , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Animals were treated acutely with 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg nortriptyline (NT) 30 min before the tail suspension test (TST). They were sacrificed after test for evaluation of plasma and brain levels of NT. The anti-immobility effect increased with increasing doses and concentrations of the drug, reaching statistical significance (P less than 0.01, Dunnett test) at a dose of 20 mg/kg, 865 ng/ml in plasma and 11 micrograms/g in brain tissue. The anti-immobility effect was, however, blocked with the highest, non-toxic, concentrations. Results seem to indicate a biphasic curvilinear relationship between plasma and brain levels of NT and behaviour in mice.